Solid Waste E-News: October 2020

• Thanksgiving Solid Waste Schedule
• America Recycles Day Challenge
• What To Do With Campaign Signs
• Glass On The Side Update
• Compost Bin Sales
• Mulch Sale 

America Recycles Day Challenge

America Recycles Day Challenge
            Did you know that America Recycles Day is this Sunday, on November 15^th? Join Orange County in celebrating America Recycles Day by participating in this challenge! Orange County residents that complete all of the activities listed below and submit the document by November 30^th will be entered in a drawing for a chance to win a goodie bag. The goodie bag includes a kitchen top compost bin, t-shirt, hat, fun recycling stickers, and a stainless steel straw!

Visit this link to download the PDF. Enter your name, mailing address and dates you completed the activities. Once you’ve finished, save the document and email it to: recycling@orangecountync.gov.

What To Do With Campaign Signs

You’ve seen campaign signs all over the place – now what? These signs are made with different materials and can be challenging to recycle. Some are made from paper, others plastic and have a metal wire stand to hold them up.

Metal wire stands: Separate the metal stand from the sign. You can either save the stand to reuse or recycle in scrap metal at the Waste and Recycling Centers (WRCs). Do NOT recycle them in your blue cart!

Paper signs: If you are sure the sign is 100% paper (no foamy piece in between the signs and not laminated) then you can recycle it with your other recyclables in your blue cart or at any of our WRCs or drop-off sites. Make sure to remove the metal stand from the sign.

Plastic ‘bag’ type signs (if LDPE #4): – These signs are made with thin, flexible plastic and are stretchy. Recycle them at grocery stores with plastic bags if clean & dry. See picture below (left side), some signs say #4 on it.

Corrugated rigid plastic (Polypropylene) signs: If the sign is made with corrugated plastic, discard in the trash. See picture below (on right side).

Paper campaign literature: If you haven’t already, you can recycle all of the campaign flyers that were mailed to you in your blue cart or at any of our WRCs or drop-off sites.

Glass On The Side Update

On October 1, the Glass On The Side (GOTS) program expanded to the four unstaffed recycling sites at Cedar Falls Park, Hampton Pointe (behind Home Depot), Meadowmont and University Place. The results from the first month are in. Of the four sites,

Meadowmont and University Mall received ~960 pounds of glass combined in the first month! Unfortunately, all four of the GOTS containers were contaminated with bags of trash, other recyclables (not glass) and random objects such as a metal fire pit. These items are not recyclable with glass and have to be manually removed before sending glass to the processor.

As with other recycling, contamination reduces the value of the material and is costly to manually remove. Orange County asks that all members of the community choosing to separate glass bottles and jars for recycling ensure that they put only loose, unbagged glass in the black dumpsters marked for only glass. Orange County is installing bars on each opening in the containers to restrict large, non-bottle/jar items from being deposited. The openings are 10” allowing for gallon jugs to be deposited.

From July through October, the program collected 118 tons of glass combined from Orange County, Alamance and Durham Counties in a regional cooperative program. All the glass is sold to Strategic Materials in Wilson, NC for conversion to new industrial products including bottles, fiberglass insulation and reflective paint. 

Compost Bin Sales

Orange County Solid Waste is pleased to again offer counter top compost pails and ‘Earth Machine’ backyard composters for sale. Sales are by APPOINTMENT ONLY. A limited number of appointments are available each Wednesday.  To schedule an appointment please call (919) 968-2788 or email recycling@orangecountync.gov.

You can pay with cash, check or money order ONLY. Exact change is REQUIRED. 

Prices: Counter Top Compost Pail: $5,  Earth Machine Backyard Composter: $50

The sales will take place at the Orange County Scale house located at 1514 Eubanks Rd., Chapel Hill, NC 27516. Face Masks and compliance with social distancing measures are required. Due to the pandemic, employees are prohibited from assisting with the loading of purchases into customer’s vehicles. Purchasers must load their purchase themselves. The composter comes in two pieces and will fit in any size car.
If a customer misses their appointment time, the customer must call to schedule another appointment.